Pneumatic cushion for vehicles.



F. I. BAKER.

PNEUMATIC CUSHION FOR VEHICLES.

APPLIOAI'ION FILED NOV. 17, 1911.

1,026,893. Patented May 21,1912.

Witnesses Inventor by W ' 1 Attorneys FRED I. BAKER, OF ORANGE, MASSACHUSETTS.

PNEUMATIC CUSHION FOR VEHICLES.'

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed November 17, 1911. Serial No. 660,986.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRED L'BAKER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Orange, in the county of Franklin and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Pneumatic Cushion for Vehicles, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to pneumatic cushionsparticularly designed for use in con- 1 view which will ap car as the description therewith, parts bein flating it, means being provided wherebythe vehicle body is properly guided during its u and down'movement relative to the running gear.

With the foregoing and other ob ects in roceeds, the, invent1on resides in the comination and. arrangement of parts and in the details of construction hereinafter described and claimed, it being understood that changes in the precise embodiment of the invention herein disclosed can be made within the scope of what is claimed, without de arting from the spirit of the invention.

n. the accom anying drawings the preferred form 0 shown.

In said drawings :--Figure 1 is a rear elevation of a portion of a motor vehicle having the present improvements; combined shown in sect1on. transversm section the' invention has been Fig. 2- is a vertica throu h the cushion.

Re erring to the figures by characters of reference A designates a portion of the body of. a motor vehicle or the like, and B designates one of the axles thereof. Guide'stems 1 are fixedly connected to and project upab y wardly from the axle B and are slid engaged by tubular members 2 fixedly connected, at their upper ends, to a crossbar 3 which, in turn, is secured in any suitable manner, as by means of brackets 4, tothe.

body A of the vehicle. If desired the body can be so shaped as to extend around the brackets 4 and the tubular members 2 and thus conceal them and the parts adjacent thereto.

Furthermore the tub-ularmembers 2 can be braced by means of loops 5 extending therearound and attached to the body 'A.

A base bar 6 is fixedly connected to and supported above the axle B by means of downwardly diverging arms 7 and secured to this base bar is the bottom element 8 of the cushion. The body of the cushion is made up of preferably three superposed collapsible compartments 9, 10 and 11, the walls of which are made up of air tight flexible material. The said compartments are divided from each other by partitions 12 and each compartment is provided with a valved air inlet 13 whereby air can be forced into the compartment by means of an air pump of any preferred type. The top of the upper compartment 11 1s secured to the cross bar 3 and, as the bottom of the lower com artment is secured to the base bar 6, it Wlll be apparent that the cushion is thus held against displacement relative to the two bars. The cushion is located between the tubular members 2 and said members are preferably provided with springs 14 located therein and ada ted to bear on the upper ends of the gui e stems 1. These springs are normally inactive and are only adapted to be placed under compression should one or more of the compartments of the cushion become deflated, and tend to lower the body A to an undesirable extend relative to the axle B. It will be understood that all of the parts of the cushion are preferably housed under the body A so that they cannot be seen under ordinary conditions.

In using the cushion the compartments 9,

10 and 11 are inflated in any preferred mannor, the middle compartment 10 being larger than the other two compartments and being adapted to contain air under greater pressure than that within the compartments 9 and 11. It will be seen by providin one of these cushions above each axle o the vehicle, all shocks will be absorbed there by and it becomes unnecessary to emplo pneumatic tires such as commonly use The upper and lower compartments of the cushions will 'eld under ordinary strains but, when the ody is subjected to excessive jolts, the middle compartment 10 will yield and, should one or more of the compart- Patented May 21, 1912.

ments become deflated from any cause, the springs 14 will be brought into play to prevent' objectionable pounding 0 the upper ends of the members 2 upon the upper ends v v the guides, at base bar secured tothe axle and of the stems 1.

What is claimed is 1. A cushion for vehicles, including superposed non-communicating compartments, said compartments being inflated to different degrees of pressure, means for connecting the upper and lower compartments to a vehicle body and axle respectively, telescopically connected guides adapted to be secured to the body and axle of the vehicle at pointsremote from the compartments, and compression devices interposed between the guides.

2. The combination with the body of a vehicle and an axle thereunder, of guides upstanding from the axle, additional guides depending from the body and slidably engaging the first mentioned guides, compression devices disposed between said guides, a cross bar connected to the body and bet-ween between the guides, and a plurality of constantly exposed non-communicating superposed inflatable elements secured to and interposed between said bars and between the guides and constituting a pneumatic cushion, one of said elements being inflated for greater resistance than the remaining elements.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own, I have hereto afiixed my sign ature in the presence of two witnesses.

FRED I. BAKER.

VVitnesses':

THOMAS H WILLIAMS, -M. O. SCHONLER. 

